Soil Datasets > Data > European Soil Database

The European Soil Database (ESDB) is the main source of information from which most other data
information and services are derived. For instance, the “European Soil
Database v2 Raster Library” contains raster (grid) data files with cell
sizes of both 1km x 1km and 10km x 10km for a large number of soil related
parameters. The 10km x 10km rasters are in the public domain access and allow
expert users to use the data for instance to run soil, water and air related
models. The 1km x 1km rasters are available after a prior registration. The
grids fit with ideas from INSPIRE to develop “nested” systems
for reporting and updating European soil data at different scales, according
to a hierarchy of grids with a common point of origin and standardized location
and size of grid cells.

The European Soil Database (ESDB) contains four discrete datasets which are documented in the ESDB v2.0 CD-ROM:

the Soil Geographical Database of Eurasia at scale 1:1,000,000 (SGDBE)

the Pedotransfer Rules Database (PTRDB)

the Soil Profile Analytical Database of Europa (SPADBE)

the Database of Hydraulic Properties of European Soils (HYPRES)

Find below the different source of data for the European Soil Database:

(March 2006)
The
European Soil Database is the major European-wide soil database: the full vector version
of the ESDB v2.0 are publicly available as Vector Data .
See further documentation for ESDB v2.0 taken from the ESDB
v2.0 CD-ROM

(May 2006) The European Soil Database v2
Raster Library - 1kmx1km
contains raster data files (in ESRI GRID format) for most attributes (73 in
total) of the SGDBE and PTRDB databases of the European Soil Database (distribution
version 2); cell sizes are 1km x 1km;
See further documentation.

The European Soil Database v2 Raster
Library - 10kmx10km contains raster data files (ESRI GRID format) for most attributes
(73 in total) of the SGDBE and PTRDB databases of the European Soil Database
(distribution version 2);cell sizes are 10km x 10km; The Raster Library 10kmx10km is also available
in GISCO
version.

(October 2013) Derived data: A number of layers for soil properties have been created based on data from the European Soil Database in combination with data from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) and Soil-Terrain Database (SOTER). The available layers include: Total available water content, Depth available to roots, Clay content, Silt content, Sand content, Organic carbon, Bulk Density, Coarse fragments.

(Feb 2008)Google
Earth Files: a number of KMZ (Zipped Keyhole Markup Language - KML)
files applicable to the European Union extension (27 Countries) of the European
Soil Database are available for download.

(May 2008) SINFO (Soil Data for MARS): Soil data for Europe are used in the Crop Growth Monitoring System (CGMS) which is a part of the Mars Crop Yield Forecasting System (MCYFS).

Legend
Files: a number of Legend Files (in LYR or AVL format) applicable to soil
data from the ESDB are available for download; they are conform to the instructions described
in the "Manual of Procedures Version 1.1". These files can be applied to
the vector based soil data only. They do not apply to the raster versions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: some of the parameters and constructs in the ESDB are better understood through the explanations in this (seemingly outdated, but still very relevant) document that was not bundled with the ESDB.